High Heat (Hotshots 2)

“Nelson! My man!” Jimenez had a particularly hearty hello for Garrick. “Looking good. How’d that lost dog turn out?”

“Pretty good.” Garrick gave a wry smile. “She’s mine now. Spoiled rotten, but she’s a great dog.”

“Excellent. And you? How are you? When are we going to see your ass back in gear? Getting awfully quiet around the base without you talking smack.”

“I...” Garrick had already fielded a wide variety of questions about how he was, most with brief yet polite replies, but something about this one seemed to stump him. “Not happening.”

“What?” Jimenez frowned along with several others standing close by.

“I mean, I’m not going back to smoke jumping.” Garrick’s voice was loud enough to make the other swirling conversations around them stop, all eyes on him.

“What?”

“Since when?”

“What happened?”

“Really?”

The questions came from all directions, and Rain sure as hell had some too, but he was more concerned with how Garrick’s eyes were flat, no light at all, and his skin grayish, like he might need to hurl soon.

“I...need to get out of here.” Garrick used his crutches to stand, then pushed past several openmouthed people to make his way to the front door, which banged closed behind him.

“I should go after him.” Frowning, Linc headed after him, but Rain got there first.

“Let me.”

“Me and him, we go way back. Grade school even.” Linc’s eyes narrowed like he was readying more of a case for himself, then his head tilted, considering. Rain stood firm, meeting him hard stare for hard stare, and Linc must have seen something satisfactory in Rain’s gaze because finally he nodded. “Go on then.”

Not that Rain needed permission, but he appreciated not needing to battle a crowd of well-meaning folks to get to Garrick. He didn’t have to go far to find Garrick as he was still on the porch, sitting on a bench at the far end.

“Fucking steps. Can’t even storm off properly. Not to mention I didn’t drive here myself.”

“If you need to leave, we’ll leave.” Despite wanting desperately to touch him, Rain hung back, trying to figure out how to give Garrick what he needed most right then, whatever that was.

“I should go apologize first. Explain. Fuck. I hate this.”

“You don’t owe anyone an explanation. If you want, I’ll go make a quick goodbye. Then you can call Linc or whomever when you’re ready.”

“You’re too good to me.” Some of the fight went out of Garrick’s voice, leaving him sounding utterly exhausted. Worn out. Rain couldn’t not reach out now, and he rubbed one of Garrick’s concrete-pylon-tense shoulders.

“You should know by now. There’s not much I wouldn’t do for you. We’re totally hide-the-bodies friends.”

“Totally.” Garrick gave him a weak but grateful smile. “And yeah. I know it’s not the best, but I just want out of here.”

“Quit worrying about other people,” Rain said sternly, continuing to rub his shoulder. “I’ll make it happen for you.”

And he would because making excuses was easy. Fixing what was wrong with Garrick, though, that was going to take some work. And talking. Lots of talking. This time he wasn’t letting Garrick out of the conversation either. One way or another he was getting the whole story.

Chapter Fourteen

“I’m just so fucking pissed.” Garrick finally had enough silence, enough of the quiet compassion coming from Rain’s side of the car, to feel slightly human again, less of the burnt-out-hull feeling he’d had sitting on Linc’s porch. Still, though, he surprised himself by speaking, especially by acknowledging the feeling he’d been running from ever since the day before.

“Good.” Eyes on the road, Rain nodded sharply.

“Good?” That hadn’t been the response Garrick had expected from his hippie, free-spirited lover at all.

“Good. Be angry. You’ve been bottling stuff up far too long. It’s okay to let it out.”

“But you don’t need me unloading on you...” The long list of things he was mad about welled up in him again, making it hard to breathe let alone talk.

“Dude. That’s exactly what I’m here for. I can take it. Get mad.”

Garrick had a brief flash of himself as a young teen, and his mother telling him to stop being so dramatic and needy. No one needs your bad mood. Expressing emotions was not as easy or as cathartic as Rain made it sound. It was risky and more than a little scary. People counted on him to be fun and upbeat, not an emotional downer. But somehow the words refused to stay put any longer and came tumbling out.

“Insurance doesn’t want to pay for my current schedule of PT. Fucking sucks. They blindsided me with this BS yesterday. Apparently, there’s some question about ‘medical necessity’ given that my whole fucking team thinks this may be as good as it gets for me.”

“Ah.” Rain didn’t leap in with a quick suggestion that Garrick prove them wrong or pay out of pocket. Just that. Ah. And somehow that made Garrick madder.